The free community Thanksgiving Dinner at High Places Community Church and Grove Theater in Oak Ridge is Thursday.
This year’s program has been changed to allow people to maintain physical distances.
The Oak Ridge Community Thanksgiving Dinner is hosted by a grassroots group of people.
Dinner will be served by drive-up/walk-up from 12 to 1 p.m. Thursday at 123 Randolph Road in Grove Center.
[Read more…]
The Oak Ridge Public Library will close to the public and return to curbside pickup only after the Thanksgiving holiday due to the dramatic increase in local COVID-19 cases, a press release said.
Curbside hours are Monday through Saturday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Starting Monday, November 30, library users can place holds on books, movies, music, and audiobooks through the library’s catalog at http://orpl.ent.sirsi.net/. Patrons will be notified when their items are ready to be picked up. Look for the reserved parking spaces in the library’s parking lot, call the number on the sign, and library staff will bring your items to your car. If you need help finding items to read, watch, or listen to, you can call (865) 425-3455 for assistance placing holds.
[Read more…]
Roane State Community College’s new Food Pantry On-the-Go is addressing food insecurity among students during the pandemic. Following highly positive feedback from its initial effort, the mobile food pantry’s next event is set for Wednesday, December 2, at the Campbell County Campus in LaFollette.
The event will be held in Room 101 from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. Roane State students from any of the college’s nine campuses will have the opportunity to shop—for free—for a wide variety of non-perishable and microwavable food items. Organizers hope the event will help students and their families stock up ahead of the winter break.
The first Food Pantry On-the-Go event was held in October at the Knox County Center for Health Sciences. These mobile events are the latest effort by the college to help students who may have food insecurity issues that have only increased due to COVID-19. Even prior to the pandemic, statistics showed that at least 40 percent of college students experienced some form of food insecurity.
[Read more…]
Sam Venable
Appalachian tales and mountain music will be presented at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge 19th annual Gala on Friday, December 4.
It will be the museum’s first virtual gala, and it will celebrate East Tennessee’s great mountain heritage with the theme “MoonShine on the Mountain,” a press release said. It will also feature Children’s Museum STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) mixed in with the entertainment.
Sam Venable, humor columnist for the Knoxville News Sentinel, will bring his storytelling magic to the Museum, presenting Southern Appalachian Tales for the Gala audience, the press release said. Author of 14 books, Venable writes on outdoor and humor themes.
In recent years, Venable’s popularity has grown as a comedic entertainer, the press release said. His topics include how to speak “hillbillyese” and coping with the nutty life in which we live. He has teamed up with entertainers Bill Landry, a TV personality; Elizabeth Rose, singer and storyteller; and Jim Claborn, hillbilly funnyman, on the “Talk is Cheap” comedy tour at venues throughout the region.
As COVID-19 cases surge across the country, the university system is struggling to contain the spread of the disease and keep classes open. Sara Alert Academic is available now by subscription for university officials to securely automate the monitoring of students, faculty, and staff exposed to or infected with COVID-19 or any infectious disease, a press release said.
The software platform is tailored to the unique needs of universities and colleges, providing an automated workflow to allow health staff to rapidly prioritize and respond to student and staff needs. It customizes what a university will need to streamline the process, such as student identification, housing information, and tracking by university-specific areas, such as campus buildings or sports teams, the press release said.
“Sara Alert Academic provides secure infectious disease monitoring and reporting tailored specifically for universities,” said ORAU Vice President of Research and University Partnerships Ken Tobin. “It can help keep campuses operating safely through increased efficiency in tracking potential exposures and monitoring confirmed cases, leading to earlier containment and isolation, and reduction of burden on limited resources.”
First Presbyterian offers
free holiday meals
First Presbyterian Church members have donated numerous food items to provide holiday meals to food-insecure guests who stop by the church between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 12, and Thursday, Dec. 10. The church’s monthly “Welcome Table” community meal program plans to supply guests with a free bag of groceries for each of the two dates. Inside the bag will be canned ham, canned yam or sweet potatoes, canned cranberries, canned green beans, stove-top stuffing mix, chicken broth, yellow cake mix, berry pie filling and canned 7-Up and Sprite drinks. The last three items are ingredients for a dessert recipe that will be included. Guests should drive through the church parking lot to the back of the sanctuary building (1051 Oak Ridge Turnpike) at the intersection of the Turnpike and Lafayette Drive on the second Thursday of this month and December. Church volunteers wearing masks will deliver the groceries to guests in their cars.
A float is pictured above in the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce’s annual Christmas Parade on Saturday, Dec. 10, 2016. (File photo by Eli Welton)
The Oak Ridge Christmas Parade will be a reverse parade this year because of concerns about COVID-19. That means the floats will be stationary and spectators will drive the parade route.
In normal years, the spectators are stationary, and the floats are driven down Oak Ridge Turnpike.
This year, floats will line the northbound lanes of Lafayette Drive (heading toward Oak Ridge Turnpike), and spectators will drive down the southbound lanes (heading toward Illinois Avenue) to enjoy the festivities from the safety and comfort of their own cars, a press release said.
The Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce, which organizes the parade, announced the change on Monday. [Read more…]
Left to right, past Bow Tie awardees announcing Tom Beehan as this year’s recipient (note: photo taken in January 2020): Bear Stephenson, Ray Smith, Teresa Myrick, Tom Beehan, Cande Seay, Bill Capshaw, Louise Mixon, and Tom’s wife, Kay Brookshire. (Submitted photo)
ADFAC will host its eighth annual Bill Wilcox Bow Tie Event on Saturday, November 14, at the DoubleTree Hotel in Oak Ridge.
This event celebrates an important volunteer in the community each year who exemplifies the values of the late Bill Wilcox, a press release said. This year’s honoree is former mayor and local volunteer Tom Beehan.
This year’s pandemic-altered event will be a “drive by” event with multiple focuses, the press release said: [Read more…]
By Bob Fowler, Roane State staff writer
Crisp, clear weather greeted a fall tradition in Oak Ridge’s historic Jackson Square on Saturday, October 17, with artists of all ages creating colorful chalk art on the sidewalk.
By mid-morning during the Rotary Club of Oak Ridge’s annual Street Painting Festival, many of the participant’s creations were taking form, and each artist’s hands were covered with a chalk patina.
Launched in 2000, the festival is facilitated by the Rotary Club of Oak Ridge to support scholarships for Roane State Community College students through the nonprofit Roane State Foundation. Both participants and onlookers followed pandemic guidelines, wearing masks and practicing social distancing.
“We are so fortunate to continue our partnership between Roane State Community College, The Rotary Club of Oak Ridge, and the Jackson Square Merchants Association to present the annual Street Painting Festival,” said Rotarian Jim Dodson, the event’s creative director.
[Read more…]
Sabrina Butler Smith
A virtual community forum on “Race, Wrongful Conviction, and the Death Penalty” will be held at 4 p.m., Sunday, October 25.
A focus will be on the planned execution of Pervis Payne, scheduled for December 3 in Nashville. He is a Black man with an intellectual disability and son of a highly respected pastor, a press release said.
The speakers will be Rolanda Holman, Payne’s sister, who will describe the circumstances surrounding his case and the push for DNA testing and commutation of his sentence; Sabrina Butler Smith, exoneree from Mississippi’s death row and Memphis resident, who will connect issues from her case to those in Payne’s case and the broader realities of racial injustice inherent in the death penalty; and the Reverend Stacy Rector, executive director of Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, who will reflect on current issues raised by the death penalty, particularly as they relate to race and wrongful conviction, the press release said. [Read more…]
The Volunteer CrossFit Team from Oak Ridge participated in the 2019 Breakthrough Run in honor of Gus Beehan, in the wagon, and Gus’ cousin Luke Koksal. (Submitted photo)
Autism Breakthrough of Knoxville is hosting a 21-Day Virtual Challenge November 5-25, featuring individual runs, walks and talks that replace its annual spring 5K Run for Autism.
Breakthrough is inviting the community to learn more about adults on the autism spectrum through the 21-day journey with stories from families of adults with autism and discussions with leading professionals knowledgeable in the field of autism. Its annual 5K Run will be held during the challenge, although virtually this year because of COVID-19.
“In April we made the decision to postpone our Annual 5K Run out of concern for runners’ health and safety due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those concerns remain present today,” race chair Happy Lee said.
“We hope you will take the challenge to run, walk, listen, and talk about issues facing adults on the spectrum today. We invite you to hear our stories and share them with friends and family each day during the challenge,” Lee added. [Read more…]
The City of Oak Ridge does not regulate Halloween activities, but it has offered health safety tips and alternatives to celebrating the spooky season during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many traditional Halloween activities can be high-risk for spreading viruses, the city said in a press release. If you might have COVID-19 or might have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, you should not participate in in-person Halloween festivities and should not give out candy to trick-or-treaters, the city said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), these are some low-risk activities:
[Read more…]